Tag Archives: fly fishing blog

Trout Underground victorious in Stienstra Lawsuit

lawsuitThe Trout Underground has successfully defending itself from a spurious lawsuit by San Francisco Examiner Outdoor columnist Tom Stienstra.

Mr. Stienstra took exception to the Underground mentioning his apparent 2010 Marijuana bust, and chose to flex a bit of judicial muscle, albeit a bit tardy given the statute of limitations had expired on any potential defamation complaint.

I suppose the angling version of the judge’s gentle reminder would’ve been, “ … you should’ve sued him last week.”

Anyone who’s ever relied on information provided by weather-people or outdoor columnists (present company included) should not be surprised someone was smoking something …

You can read the Underground’s initial report of the incident at the link above. Myself, I see it as a simple narration of facts reported by other news sources and have trouble with the concept of apparent malicious intent.

Thinking of the great heritage angling writing has – and the many colorful characters that have added to angling lore, the only surprise here may be denial. Amid all the flashing bulbs and stern gendarmes leading some minor angling worthy to the Hoosegow, should be an unapologetic smile and a couple of choice epithets for the press.

That’s the stuff of legend … not, “I never inhaled …”

The Trout Underground Posts Bloggy Mea Culpa

This is TC of the Trout Underground (the fool who hosts Singlebarbed so all you malcontents will have a place to hang out together, leaving the rest of us alone), and I won’t go into the gritty details about what’s been happening beneath the surface here at Singlebarbed’s blog.

Suffice it to say we’ve struggled with a bad Web server, and moving a corrupted blog to a new host (which was crashing as a result) wasn’t ideal.

And yes, I’ve seen a few largely sleepless nights as a result.

Basically, Jack London stuff, but on a digital level.

Hopefully, we’ve got the bugs worked out, but we were forced to revert Singlebarbed’s damaged site to a backup taken a couple days ago.

I expect Singlebarbed – as soon as he’s back among the living, and free of his Nyquil-induced haze – will handle his missing posts (parts of which were recovered).

Sadly, there’s not much to be done about the last couple day’s lost comments.

With any luck, there won’t be any more posts like this. (Then again, with any luck, there won’t be any more blogs like this either.)

You may resume your normal blogging activities.

See you on the Internet, Tom Chandler.

Will Taimen be as compelling if we use the other five senses?

With Odorama!With Hollywood scheduling eight 3-D films this year, will the extremist angling film crowd be swayed by the flames and guts splashing over the audience – and play the same card with an angling feature?

Me? I’d say it’s a “no brainer.”

All them fellows were raised on zombie movies and carnage, and the neo-traditional “grip and grin” pose is yesterday’s news…

Prepare for the Attack of the Giant Chrome Slab of Steelhead Death – thrust into the theater by some fellow dressed like a crazed homeless person, complete with the Slimy Fingerless Gloves of Possible Strangulation.

All them fellows have a maniacal laugh – mostly because they didn’t have to pay for the trip, nor supply the camera crew with Yak Butter Margarita’s of local manufacture.

I’d suggest that AEG Media and it’s followers skip the entire genre. Instead resurface Odorama, and unleash Scratch n’ Sniff hell on a unsuspecting film audience.

A big fish is admirable, but once you’ve seen a couple dozen them 3-D glasses start to itch. The smell of a Mongolian Yurt, with adjoining stable of Yak’s in full rut – is an olfactory pinnacle whose memory lingers forever.

Ditto for every carcass washed up at the high water mark. Thrill to the bouquet of Taimen – caught after a week of direct sunshine …

Some follow fashion, and some set it, certainly there’s a unique opportunity for a film director imbued with real passion.